Eagles quarterback Nick Foles certainly rivaled that rarity when he tied the NFL record for single-game passing touchdowns with more than a quarter left to play in Philly’s 49-20 beatdown of Oakland.

On a Sunday that appeared to be full of lackluster games coming in, there were almost two more huge surprises as winless Tampa Bay took an early three touchdown lead on NFC West leading Seattle and Buffalo headed into the fourth quarter with undefeated Kansas City tied at 13-13.

While the end result in those games proved to be as expected, how the winning teams got there certainly proves that trying to forecast how the NFL is going to turn out on any given Sunday never ends up being an exact science.

Here are the players and coaches who helped make Sunday’s action a lot more interesting than we would have figured.

The Bad: The Bucs’ crunchtime defenseTampa Bay Buccaneers players certainly fought their hearts out on the road against one of the NFL’s best teams in the Seahawks, only to blow a 21-point lead en route to a 27-24 overtime defeat. The Bucs deserve the bulk of their 0-8 record, but certainly played better than that mark for three quarters on Sunday. It’s the closest they got to a win since Week 1, when Lavonte David’s questionable penalty on a late hit against the Jets set New York up for a game-winning field goal.

The Good: Lawrence Guy
The San Diego Chargers claimed the 6-foot-4, 318-pound defensive lineman off waivers from the Colts after Week 5. He made his presence felt in the first quarter against the Redskins, blocking a 25-yard Kai Forbath field goal attempt on Washington’s first drive. Guy then batted a Robert Griffin III pass from the Redskins’ 1 on Washington’s next series, as the deflection bounced off several players before landing in Chargers’ lineman Sean Lissemore’s hands for a bizarre pick six to give San Diego an early 7-0 lead.

(Christopher Hanewinckel/USA TODAY Sports)

The Bad: Ken WhisenhuntTrailing 24-21 in the final minute of the game, the Chargers had a 1st & goal on the Redskins’ 1-yard-line. With three chances to punch the ball in and win the game, the Chargers offensive coordinator opted not to call a running play involving Ryan Matthews on any of the opportunities. Instead the team was stood up on a run involving undersized back Danny Woodhead on first down and couldn’t convert two pass routes on the next two downs. The Chargers settled for a field goal and ended up losing 30-24 after the Redskins scored on their first possession in overtime.

(Jeff Curry/USA TODAY Sports)

The Good: Chris Johnson
This is the Chris Johnson Titans fans have been waiting to see all season. The one-time 2,000-yard rusher came into Sunday’s game against the St. Louis Rams and former coach Jeff Fisher without a touchdown or 100-yard performance this year. He broke free for 150 yards and two scores (including a 19-yard game winner with 2:54 left) as Tennessee left the Edward Jones Dome with a 28-21 win.

(Ken Blaze/USA TODAY Sports)

The Bad: Baltimore’s offensive lineAt some point the Ravens’ inability to run the football goes beyond Ray Rice. Joe Flacco led the team’s ground game with 25 yards rushing in Baltimore’s 24-18 loss to Cleveland, a game in which he was also sacked five times by Browns defenders. If the reigning Super Bowl champs want to get any sort of offensive consistency, it’s going to have to start with the guys up front.

(Tim Heitman/USA TODAY Sports)

The Good: Tony Romo
The fourth quarter is never boring with the Cowboys quarterback. After the Vikings scored with 5:40 left to go up 23-20, Romo’s pass to Terrence Williams was picked off by Minnesota’s A.J. Jefferson on 3rd & 9 several plays later. The signal-caller shook it off and led a nine play, 90-yard drive on the next series, which culminated with a 7-yard touchdown pass to Dwayne Harris with 35 seconds to play.

(USA TODAY Sports Images)

The Bad: Christian Ponder
Despite Adrian Peterson’s best efforts, the Vikings couldn’t escape the performance of their beleaguered quarterback, who fumbled the ball in his own end zone for a Cowboys touchdown in the third quarter, threw an early fourth quarter pick and failed to convert any first downs following Romo’s key turnover late in the game. Given one last opportunity to throw a Hail Mary pass from the Dallas 47, Ponder’s last-second heave didn’t even reach the end zone.

(Greg Cooper/USA TODAY Sports)

The Good: Tom Brady
After an underwhelming first eight games, Brady compiled a 151.8 passer rating in New England’s 55-31 win over Pittsburgh, hitting three receivers for over 100 yards each. With the Pats now 7-2 and a healthy Rob Gronkowski, Danny Amendola and Stevan Ridley at his disposal coming out of next week’s bye, the quarterback looks poised to put up some more Brady-like numbers in his final seven games.

(AP/Charles Krupa)

The Bad: Troy Polamalu and Ryan Clark
A week after they let Terrelle Pryor fly by them with a 93-yard touchdown run, the Steelers defense gave up a franchise record 55 points in a 55-31 loss to the Patriots. The team’s usually solid safeties were victimized by a series of big plays, including several by Rob Gronkowski on the Patriots’ second drive.

I found this on FTW and wanted to share:
%link%
For more great sports stories ...
*visit For The Win: https://www.ftw.usatoday.com
*follow @ForTheWin: https://www.twitter.com/forthewin
*like FTW on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/usatodayftw